Thursday, April 1, 2010

McCall's 5522

This photo is showing a suspicious bulge line around my waist. As far as I know I don't really have a spare tire. It's driving me nuts and is all I can see in the picture. ACK. I am too lazy to take another picture right now, so there you are. I am blaming my skirt. (Or the wrinkles in the back that you will see in the next picture.) I have no such imperfections. (If you buy that, I have a bridge you might want.)

Back View:

That pooling in the back is pretty annoying. Looks like I need a swayback adjustment. I'm not quite sure how to do it with those two vertical seams, but I will try to work some magic.

I am pretty happy with this blouse, and feel like I've done some really nice work. I did not make a muslin, and I probably should have. In addition to the pooling in the back, the armholes on this thing are ginormous. HUGE!

If you have this pattern, you may notice that the sleeve I used is not an option given on the envelope. The long sleeves are too long (it's Spring!) and the shorter sleeves are too poofy. They might be fine, but with the ruffle along the placket, I thought it would be totally too much. I just grabbed a sleeve I liked from a Simplicity pattern and used it instead. It wasn't a perfect match, but it worked on the fly. (I was not really up to any complicated adjustments this week.) This sleeve is normally pretty gathery at the top, but because the armscye is so HUGE, it is a little flatter.

Things I will do if I make this again.

Redraft that armscye. HUGE!

Make a special cap sleeve just for this pattern.

Swayback adjustment.

Draft a Peter Pan collar. I think it would look super cute. I have a vintage pattern with a Peter Pan collar and a ruffle and it is adorable.

I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that ruffle, but I won't know until I wear it a couple of times. I also had a lot of plaid matching on this shirt, some of which was successful, some not so much. However, I hoped the plaid was small enough that some mismatching would be no big deal. Looks fine to me.

13 comments:

Let me start again. I think your top is adorable and very flattering. I like the sleeves you chose. I made a muslin before I made this pattern. I did take in around 3 inches from the armseye, but I normally take in alot from the armseye so I guess I didn't equate it with a pattern flaw. I usually equate it with a Linda flaw. The big sleeves were perfect for my big arms, probably not so great for everyone else. I love the ruffle. I'm going to have to make one with the ruffle.